Work has been…intense lately. To which my husband and any of the friends with whom I’ve had to either decline or cancel plans can attest. Bleah. But at least I’m not concerned about running out of things to do, right? However, the past two days, and my ability to work from home in general, are something that I consider myself fortunate to have. Because I’m getting just as much work done sitting here in my jammies with the cats curled up next to me (it’s freezing, so we’re pooling our body heat), but I feel so much more…relaxed. It’s a delightful feeling. And if Xena weren’t curled up on my legs, I’d probably get up to make myself a nice mug of tea. Later, perhaps.
I’ve been all kinds of introspective lately, which is likely a good thing, in the end. And it’s not just because I did that Facebook “25 Things About Me” note. I jokingly referred to all of this as my mini-existential crisis, but it’s not that far from the truth. I go through periods where I re-evaluate things in my life, where I question whether or not it’s heading in a direction I’m okay with – all of that. So me being me, in all of my Type A, ESFJ-ness, I made a list. I thought about what was really bugging me and wrote it down. I came up with six general things. I then sat down and wrote down what I thought I could do about them. Seriously. And just writing things down and having something in black and white actually made me feel better – because now it’s not this mysterious malaise that I just can’t figure out, it’s an identifiable problem, with identifiable things I can try to work on it.
It’s totally unsurprising to me that I was a science major. I appear to live my life by the scientific method.
Speaking of science, the good folks at Grist made me laugh like an idiot today. And for that, I thank them. They have decided to establish “a regular feature in which Grist's editorial team celebrates -- and carps about! -- notable climate-related steps taken by businesses, politicians, and individuals.” The award for doing good things?
The Green Thumb.
The “award” for doing bad things?
The Angry Polar Bear.
posted by Mandy @ 1:02 PM
3 Comments:
As a science major I'm sure you'll soon figure out there's no such thing as an 'existential problem'. Good luck and happy living.
Have you considered buying a house?
[Ducks and Runs]
Interestingly, I'm reading a history of the English language, and one of the things they're talking about that makes English so expressive and powerful is the many ways of saying similar things with very different implications, because the ability to name and identify something is key in understanding it. Naming and listing the "what's bugging me" pile is huge in helping figure life out. (It was exactly that kind of list that made me move off the east coast!) Congrats on being able to nail them. :)
Those of us who live nowhere near you have been missing you, too.
The other cool option you have after you've named the things that bug you is to determine that some of them are not actually such a big deal, in the grand scheme of things, and you'd rather not spend the energy working on them or stressing about them. I am finding that many of the little things that bug me fall into this category. Not that I'm always successful in not caring about them anymore, but I figure it's a start.
-- Shaz
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